The Mason Dixon Line (A Horizons Novel) (9 page)

“Don’t do it to please them. What do you
care what your family thinks, anyway?”

“I do. They mean well, even if they drive
me crazy.”

With a start, she realized they were
actually having a decent time. Their initial awkwardness had melted away during
their conversation, and instead of unwelcome lust, she’d slipped into a low
buzz of attraction that hummed in the back of her mind but never took over her
thoughts.

An explosion of rustling from the dead leaves
shattered the moment. From behind a cluster of trees, two deer emerged. They
galloped down the ridge and crossed the creek, creating a cascade of splashes.
They didn’t stop until they were well on the other side of the water. They
stopped to cast a wary glance toward the strange invaders to their territory.

“Oh, my God, I’ve never—”

Mason shushed her with a finger on her
lips. A flash of heat when through her body. Instead of being offended, all she
could feel was his fingertip on her lips. What would he do if she parted her
lips, teasing the tip of his nail with her tongue?

He withdrew his finger, leaving her bereft.
They watched the deer for several minutes until they wandered out of sight into
the trees on the other side of the creek.

“Aw, too bad they left so soon. They were
beautiful.” She hadn’t seen many deer except for the ones in
Bambi
, but these were really amazing, so
graceful and sleek.

He gave her an odd look.

“What?”

“You. I thought you only liked to text your
friends and watch the shopping channel, yet here you are. Making friends with a
chameleon and watching deer in the woods.”

“Here I am,” she repeated. She hadn’t even
gotten bored. In fact, ever since she met Mason, she couldn’t remember feeling
bored once.

Still, it was obviously temporary. This
whole enjoying nature/creativity thing was a novelty. It would no doubt get
very dull, and then she’d go back to being her usual shallow self, shopping and
worrying about her debts.

The thought depressed her.

“I envy you, you know. You have something
you’re passionate about. I’m looking for the next thing that will help me pay
down my credit card bill, or help me afford that next pair of killer heels.”

“You know, if you didn’t buy that pair of
killer heels, maybe you wouldn’t have such a huge credit card bill.”

“Please. Looking good is the one thing I’m
good at.” When the thought formed in her head, it had been a joke, but when she
spoke it aloud, it acquired some kind of weird gravity she hadn’t intended.
Nobody spoke for a second, and her words lay there on the forest floor, among
the dead leaves.

“You’re good at a lot of things. And
although you are absolutely gorgeous, it has fucking nothing to do with what
kind of shoes you wear.”

She stared, shocked at the uncharacteristic
profanity. He looked pissed. “It doesn’t?” she said stupidly. For once, she hadn’t
been fishing for compliments. She truly didn’t know what to say.

“Of course not. What guy cares about what a
woman wears on her feet, anyway?”

The little flicker of happiness his words
spawned died away. “True. They’re too busy looking at my boobs to care about my
feet.”

“Well, I can’t deny their appeal, but that’s
really not what I meant.” He lifted one hand to her jaw. “The bones in your
face are sculpted so finely, and your skin is fair and smooth.” He stroked a
thumb across her cheek, leaving a trail of fire at the contact. An answering
heat flared between her legs. “Against your fair hair and skin, your eyes are
so wide and dark. They dominate your face and reveal everything you’re
thinking.”

“What am I thinking right now?”

“You think I’m crazy, and you really don’t
believe what I’m saying, but you like it anyway.”

Wow. “That’s about right,” she whispered.

“Your face reminds me of an anime
character.”

“What?” She fell to earth with a crash. “I
look like a cartoon?”

“No, I mean you look like the kind of
beautiful that exists only in an artist’s imagination, and never in real life.”

“Oh.” Just like that, she was floating
again.

He was going to kiss her, she could feel
it. And this time, he would be initiating it, not standing there while she
flung herself at him like a fool.

Do it
, she
willed him.
Do it do it do it
—

“And right now, your eyes are telling me
you want me to kiss you.”

She clutched his lapels and tugged him
close until his thighs grazed hers. “Nice mind-reading. Can you please get on
with it?”

“If you insist.” He dipped his head to hers
and took her lips in a kiss. Her eyes drifted shut. She raised her arms to his shoulders.
Leaning in, she let her body press against his and felt a spike of satisfaction
at his soft groan.

He might praise her eyes, but he liked her
breasts too.

When he raised his head, she noticed a
faint scar along his jaw and brushed her fingers along it. “What happened here?”

“The guy who works at Dollar World now? He
slammed my head against a toilet seat in the Boys room when I was 12. Had to
get thirty stitches.”

“Good Lord.” What he had suffered back
then. She cupped his jaw.

“He didn’t mean to hurt me that bad, I don’t
think. If I’d let him stick my head in the toilet like he wanted, I probably
wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But I fought back.”

“Of course you did.” Mason would always
fight back. Something in her desperately wished she could have known him back then,
which was ridiculous. Since when had she ever stood up for an underdog?

He cupped her head and held her tight for
his kiss, which shifted into a higher degree of urgency. His mouth had healed
some and they didn’t have to worry as much about his cut.

His tongue entered her mouth gently, and
she met him halfway. He tasted like the beer he’d been drinking before their
walk, and another indefinable flavor that must be his own.

He kissed the way she liked it, firm but
not rough, hot and urgent. How had a nerd learned to kiss so well?

Her body heated and dampened. Forget
keeping it professional. She wanted to make love with him, right here and now,
and all because of a kiss.

He must have felt the same, because without
warning, he pushed aside the edges of her cardigan and lifted her top above her
breasts, revealing the silk of her Victoria’s Secret plunge bra.

“Oh my God.” His voice sounded rough.

“Is something the matter?”

“That is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever
seen,” he said, eyes on the deep cleavage between cups of cobalt satin.

Yep, the $256 bucks she’d blown on lingerie
was worth it to see that thunderstruck look on his face.

God, she
could fall for this man
.

The thought appeared out of nowhere. It
made her uncomfortable, so she pushed it aside.

He reached to caress the top curve of her
breast above her bra, and then froze, looking at her. “Can I touch you?”

“Of course.” It came out soft and breathy.

He lifted one hand to stroke the swell and
lowered to cup her breast through the satin of the cup. The warmth of his hand
contrasted with the cool spring air. Behind his glasses, his eyes had gone
spellbound.

This prickly, superior, even arrogant man
seemed so
awed
by her sexuality. It
made her want to overwhelm him with temptation, break his will to resist her by
burying him in her heat and softness. Time to let her inner bombshell come out.
She took a deep breath, making her curves swell and lift. She reached behind
her to unsnap her bra, knowing the motion would make her breasts thrust
forward.

His gaze grew even more rapt, if that were
possible. With a shrug, she pulled the straps down her arms, baring her breasts
to his gaze. She tossed her bra aside.

His mouth turned down. Without a word, he
fell to his knees.

Holy crap.

Was he going to worship her or something?

In a manner of speaking, yes. With
deliberation, he took one nipple, pert from the cold, into his warm mouth,
lavishing it with love and attention. His right hand caressed her other breast,
lifting and cupping it, rubbing the nipple until it was as hard as the first.

She let her hands rest on his head,
threading her fingers through his soft dark hair. Now it was her turn to be
enraptured. Her head fell back. She squeezed her eyes shut to concentrate on
the feel of his hot wet mouth on her breast.

He suckled hard on the nipple and then
released it, traveling across her breasts to give the same treatment to the
other. She locked her knees to keep them from buckling. He pulled back, an
impish smile on his face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” the word a husk of a sound. So much
for overwhelming
him
. A couple of a
minutes with his mouth on her breast had made her desperate and grabby, willing
to throw herself down and do it on the forest floor with him.

She’d underestimated the nerd once again.

He slipped his hands around to her butt to
brace her and resumed sucking her breast, teasing her with a nip once in a
while.

The haze of hunger enveloped her so
thoroughly that the sensation of him popping open the button on her jeans came
as a shock. Her eyes flew open and she looked down at him.

Was she going to do this with him? Was it a
good idea? Probably not. Would it be fun anyway?

Definitely.

He must have read the worry in her eyes—damn
his mind-reading anyway—because he smiled, looking oddly cocky and in control
for a man on his knees at a woman’s feet. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything you
don’t want me to do.”

“I know, but I’m worried about what I want
you to do.”

He pulled off his coat and spread it on the
floor, and then reached up and took her hands, tugging until she lay down on
the outspread coat. “I don’t want to have sex,” he said.

“You don’t?” What, was Christmas going to
be canceled this year too?

“Well, I do, of course. But I’m not going
to. No reason I can’t make you feel good though.” He pulled down the zipper on
her jeans and, with her assistance, wiggled them down past her hips, baring her
skin to the cool air. Goosebumps formed where her jeans fell away, but she
barely noticed as he slipped her matching cobalt thong off of her hips. He went
still for a long moment, and then looked up at her with a fervent expression. “I
know I said this already, but you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“You can keep saying that,” she said
unsteadily. “I don’t get tired of hearing it.” She wanted desperately to pull
him close for a kiss, but he slipped a hand to explore the softness between her
legs, and she forgot everything but pleasure. He slipped a finger inside her
and finding her wet, added another. She propped herself on her elbows and let
her head hang back, ready to enjoy the ride. His thumb kept up a steady rhythm
on her clitoris and a minute later, just like that, she was ready.

He read the signals and instead of pushing
her over, backed off, stroking her inner thigh with his hand. Her body felt
empty, bereft.

“Hey!” She raised her head to fix him with
a glare.

“Haven’t you ever heard of anticipation?”
He smiled at her, looking tense but also like a man thoroughly enjoying
himself.

“Yeah. It’s great,” she gasped. “I’m done
anticipating! Let’s get on with it.”

“If you insist. Don’t want to keep a lady
waiting.” He resumed the motion that had driven her insane. Within minutes she
was panting. Without warning he delved deep and rubbed with his thumb, and she
went flying, soaring so high she couldn’t keep silent, letting loose with a
groan that might have embarrassed her if she hadn’t been half out of her mind.

He stroked her tenderly as she came down,
and then lay beside her, pulling her close into his body. She closed her eyes,
the dregs of pleasure still pulsing through her blood and keeping her warm.
After a moment, eyes still closed, she fumbled her jeans back into place. “Getting
cold,” she mumbled. She pulled her shirt down and tightened her cardigan across
her chest. Her bra was on the ground somewhere nearby, hopefully not being made
into a home for woodland creatures. She’d get it in a minute.

First, she had business to take care of.

She reached for the front of his pants and
bracketed the ridge there with her hand, feeling its weight and warmth against
her hand.

He let her explore for a minute, and then
with a sound she couldn’t interpret, clasped her hand and pulled it away from
him. He lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. “You don’t have
to do that.”

“But I want to.” It was true. Her mission
to seduce him had been derailed, but she was back on track now. She tried to
pull her hand away, to reach for him again, but he didn’t allow it.